Beneficial-Friendly

[George Bouthillier]

Strawflowers (Xerochrysum bracteatum).

View attachment 27301
The Australian beekeepers know about these flowers, native to Australia. Supposed to be good sources of nectar, there is a honey bee in the picture, one of several this morning. She rudely turned her posterior to the camera so I didn't zoom in on her .

DW likes to have a few strawflowers in the each year so that she can have them for dry arrangements. They have just started to bloom and will be blooming until frost.

The honeybees are not so much the beneficial insects I'm thinking about for my annual vegetable garden. They have lots of acres of alfalfa nearby, as well as vetch and the knapweed has just begun to bloom. No, the yellowjackets and ladybugs will soon be covering these plants. I'm not sure what they are up to but the entomologists tell us that all 3 of these insects drink nectar.

The wasps are a threat to the honeybees so those will move on. Meanwhile, Steve will have to move very slowly and carefully around these plants. The yellowjackets often ride along as I carry strawflowers out of the garden. Of course, the ladybugs do too .

I don't find aphids on the broccoli and cabbage growing beside these plants. This has been the situation for the last few years. Cabbage can be turned into rotten garbage by infestations of aphids. Having strawflowers beside the cabbage seems to eliminate the aphids!

Not surprisingly, I don't have to spray the strawflowers for pests although they suffer a little insect damage during the weeks before they begin to bloom. Beneficial insect magnets !

Steve

Something that surprises me,

... while the local ladybug population has exploded this year, there are very few lacewings.

During hours of darkness, lacewings can be a real bother at the backdoor. They are attracted to the light there. Open the door and in they come, erratic flyers that they are.

I have just escorted the third 2018 lacewing out of the house. This is a very small number, from my experience.

BTW, I realize that lacewing adults do not eat bugs but their larvae might be even more voracious than the ladybugs! Another alligator insect ... one could have nightmares about these 2 bugs!

Steve

 

[George Bouthillier]

Borage is fantastic for attracting bees to pollinate your garden when plant next to tomato keeps horn worm away and sweetens fruit!Comphrey out side the garden but next to it attracts them like crazy aswell plus it makes a great fertilizer chopped up and mixed in soil and or make tea in big garbage can by garden and just let it stay there and draw the water to do plants!Here is a fantastic one but you have to weed back its growth it is tansy squash bugs hate it so its by my squash ants hate it that farm aphids that eat our crops Lady bugs love it when it goes to bloom and do alot of breeding on it laying their eggs and thats great cause they eat all the aphid which I have no problem with now cause of all the lady bugs,parisitic wasp that eat bugs and lay eggs on hornworn that kills them as the hatch love Yarrow so I planted yarrow by my garden aswell I will share more later cause this is alot of info all are native plants that come up every year natural way to take care of most of your bug problems

 

[George Bouthillier]

Something that surprises me,

... while the local ladybug population has exploded this year, there are very few lacewings.

During hours of darkness, lacewings can be a real bother at the backdoor. They are attracted to the light there. Open the door and in they come, erratic flyers that they are.

I have just escorted the third 2018 lacewing out of the house. This is a very small number, from my experience.

BTW, I realize that lacewing adults do not eat bugs but their larvae might be even more voracious than the ladybugs! Another alligator insect ... one could have nightmares about these 2 bugs!

Steve

 

[George Bouthillier]

Steve sorry if Im wrong but the moth that has lacewings is harmless to plants itself but its eggs it lays on the squash stems become vineborers that destroy the inside stem of the sqush plants and kills them!We have to be careful not to mistake the lacewing for that moth cause the moth has lacewings aswell

 

[George Bouthillier]

Ladybug larvae!!!!

 

[George Bouthillier]

Plants some tansy somewhere near your garden they love to breed and lay their eggs on them they will take care of your aphid problems and other type bug problems aswell they did for me I planted tansy a perennial years ago and no aphids and minimum bug problem cause squash bugs hate tansy and ants aswell!

 

[catjac1975]

Steve sorry if Im wrong but the moth that has lacewings is harmless to plants itself but its eggs it lays on the squash stems become vineborers that destroy the inside stem of the sqush plants and kills them!We have to be careful not to mistake the lacewing for that moth cause the moth has lacewings aswell

Are you saying that lacewings lay the squash vine borer? If so, that is definitely not true. https://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston/beneficials/beneficial-13_green_lacewing.htm

 

[George Bouthillier]

i was just trying to find a picture of a bug like the one i saw the other day. no luck, but it was very distinctive and i've not seen one like it ever before... it also had some red.

 

[George Bouthillier]

If it had reddish orange with clear lacewings it could be the moth that lays the eggs on your squash stems that turn into the vineborer better check out what the vine bore moth looks like and get rid of as many as you can when possible

 

[flowerbug]

If it had reddish orange with clear lacewings it could be the moth that lays the eggs on your squash stems that turn into the vineborer better check out what the vine bore moth looks like and get rid of as many as you can when possible

it wasn't as much the wings i noticed as the legs/body, but now that was long enough ago i couldn't give you a clear drawing of what it was other than if i see one again i'll run and get the camera.

i don't go after vine borers here, if the squash can't survive them then i won't grow more of that squash. so far so good. this year does look kinda sad in the squash patch but that is very likely because this is the third or forth year we've had them in the same area... not a recommended way to grow them, but since i'm intentionally selecting for borer resistant squash it's kinda ok too...